Homer and the Bible explores the brilliant and challenging Greek epic poetry written in the world of Late Antiquity. Beginning with a wide-ranging account of the literary landscape of early Christianity, the book delves into the 'risky poetics' of five epics composed between 400 and 600 C.E. These poems range from a mutilated visionary papyrus to the longest surviving poem in antiquity, and from mythological narratives to Gospel paraphrases, and span in provenance from the Egyptian Thebaid to Alexandria to Jerusalem. In a series of new and surprising readings, Greensmith argues that these poems push against the idea of a peaceful coexistence of Christian and pagan literary traditions, and reveal the ironies and dissatisfactions beneath large-scale, triumphant voices. Combining close literary analysis with cultural history, Homer and the Bible shows how this vital and under-explored body of epic changes our understanding of the role of Homer in early Christian writing, and shines new light on the power and danger of traditional forms in a period of profound cultural and religious change.
